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The Programmer's Brain

manning.com

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Re: The Programmer's Brain

#21

Post by YZF »

mbfg wrote: post #18

The most important skills i wish someone had taught me when i was a young developer was how to interact with people in all areas of the organization, and how to deal with the politics. I was (as a young person), strongly against really wanting to know about these aspects, and instead wanted to be purely technical, but in the end that will mean more for your career than anything else, unfortunately.

It doesn't hurt but I got a great career out of just being a hands-on kind of technical developer. I tried, and mostly succeeded to avoid places where politics play a big role. That said working well with others is important and I also do that well (If I may say so myself ;) ). Politics as in scheming for power are a total turn off for me. Never been interested and not interested in working with others that operate that way. Incredibly lucky to be able to pick and choose.

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#22

Post by lostcolony »

YZF wrote: post #21
mbfg wrote: post #18

The most important skills i wish someone had taught me when i was a young developer was how to interact with people in all areas of the organization, and how to deal with the politics. I was (as a young person), strongly against really wanting to know about these aspects, and instead wanted to be purely technical, but in the end that will mean more for your career than anything else, unfortunately.

It doesn't hurt but I got a great career out of just being a hands-on kind of technical developer. I tried, and mostly succeeded to avoid places where politics play a big role. That said working well with others is important and I also do that well (If I may say so myself ;) ). Politics as in scheming for power are a total turn off for me. Never been interested and not interested in working with others that operate t…

"Politics as in scheming for power are a total turn off for me."

Most people don't actually scheme for power in an organization. Not directly, anyway. Most people who appear to do that are coming from the perspective of "my (and my team's) needs are the most important here for the business' success"; the purpose isn't actually power, but to get their perceived needs met.

Playing politics, then, is being able to understand those needs, how they interplay and interfere with your own, and how to participate in a way that gets people agreeing on how to move forward, while feeling their needs are met. It is, in fact, exactly what you say of "working well with others". The difference is can you work well with people whose perceptions and needs are completely different than yours (but who are still pushing for what they feel to be the best thing for the company)?

Those few who are just trying to get ahead, without actually advancing the needs of their team are indeed a cancer, and -no one- wants them. Some orgs may not know how to recognize it or to get rid of such people though (or have perverse incentives to encourage such behavior). But their incentive isn't that different; they're still looking to meet their own needs, but it's -their own- needs, rather than that of benefit to the business. I.e., "I want to be perceived as the source of success so that I get promoted, even if that robs my team of recognition" rather than "I want to make sure my team's success is recognized and compensated, so that our morale and performance can stay high, and so the org will trust us with greater responsibility".

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#23

Post by jdhendrickson »

tomrod wrote: post #6
booleandilemma wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve always liked Manning…the one I can’t stand is Packt…

I have purchased exactly two Packt books. One was actually fantastic quality -- one of the best ML/Python programming books I've come across. The other was for some specialty GIS work, and it was tremendously terrible quality but the only source available.

Please feel free to share the title of the good book!

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#25

Post by esrauch »

lostcolony wrote: post #22
YZF wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't hurt but I got a great career out of just being a hands-on kind of technical developer. I tried, and mostly succeeded to avoid places where politics play a big role. That said working well with others is important and I also do that well (If I may say so myself ;) ). Politics as in scheming for power are a total turn off for me. Never been interested and not interested in working with others that operate t…

"Politics as in scheming for power are a total turn off for me." Most people don't actually scheme for power in an organization. Not directly, anyway. Most people who appear to do that are coming from the perspective of "my (and my team's) needs are the most important here for the business' success"; the purpose isn't actually power, but to get their perceived needs met. Playing politics, then, is being able to under…

I think it's a good default to think "this person is acting in good faith and believes their success is aligned with the company's success", but also recognize pretty quickly when people aren't arguing in good faith and not cling to the good-faith notion for so long that it prevents you from navigating the conflict situation effectively.

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#26

Post by dhosek »

codetrotter wrote: post #7
tomrod wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have purchased exactly two Packt books. One was actually fantastic quality -- one of the best ML/Python programming books I've come across. The other was for some specialty GIS work, and it was tremendously terrible quality but the only source available.

I used to check on the Packt page where they gave a book away for free daily a few years ago. Out of all of the books most of them were trash. There was a couple of really good ones in there. But all-over my clear impression from the books was that Packt has basically no lower bar whatsoever on quality.

I picked up all the Rust books when I decided to learn Rust a few months back. Fortunately, two were from the library (the Rust book and the Apress one), while the other I already had thanks to a Humble Bundle deal (the O'Reilly one). The Rust Programming Book is excellent (and also available freely online/via rustup docs --book, but I like to read on paper when I can). The O'Reilly one is a little out of date, but unsurprisingly comprehensive and answers some questions that were of interest to me (like that a match expression turns into a jump table automatically if the data an be appropriately indexed, e.g., if you're matching on a u8) and covers macros which the book does not. The Apress book, on the other hand, is a hot mess and often actively wrong (and important things like the distinction between String, str, OsString and OsStr are simply ignored). If I wasn't just blindly requesting stuff via my library's online catalog, I would have skipped it because I've never seen a good Apress book.

(edited to say Apress and not Packt. I'd forgotten which crappy publisher I was dealing with.)

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#27

Post by britch »

mbfg wrote: post #18

The most important skills i wish someone had taught me when i was a young developer was how to interact with people in all areas of the organization, and how to deal with the politics. I was (as a young person), strongly against really wanting to know about these aspects, and instead wanted to be purely technical, but in the end that will mean more for your career than anything else, unfortunately.

I agree with this a great deal. I think I had a strange perception of development coming out of school.

The job of a developer is to build something useful (valuable) for the company, imo.

The barrier to building something useful is rarely the pure techical difficulty, in my experience. It's knowing what to build and coordinating with others.

When I left school I was motivated a lot by building something "cool" or interesting. It's part of what got me interested in the field. But it's not the job.

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#28

Post by foolinaround »

lostcolony wrote: post #22
YZF wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't hurt but I got a great career out of just being a hands-on kind of technical developer. I tried, and mostly succeeded to avoid places where politics play a big role. That said working well with others is important and I also do that well (If I may say so myself ;) ). Politics as in scheming for power are a total turn off for me. Never been interested and not interested in working with others that operate t…

"Politics as in scheming for power are a total turn off for me." Most people don't actually scheme for power in an organization. Not directly, anyway. Most people who appear to do that are coming from the perspective of "my (and my team's) needs are the most important here for the business' success"; the purpose isn't actually power, but to get their perceived needs met. Playing politics, then, is being able to under…

> Most people don't actually scheme for power in an organization.

There is some about IT in large enterprises/banks that for all intents and purposes, groom you to do exactly this

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#29

Post by petespeed »

YZF wrote: post #21
mbfg wrote: post #18

The most important skills i wish someone had taught me when i was a young developer was how to interact with people in all areas of the organization, and how to deal with the politics. I was (as a young person), strongly against really wanting to know about these aspects, and instead wanted to be purely technical, but in the end that will mean more for your career than anything else, unfortunately.

It doesn't hurt but I got a great career out of just being a hands-on kind of technical developer. I tried, and mostly succeeded to avoid places where politics play a big role. That said working well with others is important and I also do that well (If I may say so myself ;) ). Politics as in scheming for power are a total turn off for me. Never been interested and not interested in working with others that operate t…

We can abstract your statement slightly by saying that it is "scheming to meet a desired objective". Then, in a way you also played "politics" by crafting path in your career to the way you like; in a different way; likely without impacting life of others.

Overall, not all politics are bad.

Re: The Programmer's Brain

#30

Post by 7thaccount »

woleium wrote: post #2

are Manning books any better these days? They always used to rush the most awful poorly edited and planned content to market to be the first ones with a book on $NewTechnology

That hasn't been my experience and I own quite a few of their books.
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